


Show Me (That You Love Me, Too)

by takemebacktokansas



Category: Suite Life on Deck
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Friendship/Love, One Shot, POV Moseby, Romance, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Vignette, referenced miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:27:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26871376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/takemebacktokansas/pseuds/takemebacktokansas
Summary: See, it goes like this:She makes an impression on him the first time they meet.Later, he asks her to marry him.There's more in between, but this is the crux of the matter.
Relationships: Marion Moseby/Emma Tutweiller
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	Show Me (That You Love Me, Too)

**Author's Note:**

> Listen. This is a criminally underrated ship. All of the adult ships in Disney shows are criminally underrated, when there are lowkey toxic ships for the main characters. Moseby and Tutweiller deserve some love (from each other and from everyone who reads for this fandom).
> 
> I also saw so many people claiming that Moseby is gay, and honestly, I'm a little mad about it because he's into traditionally feminine things. Don't lecture people on assuming that men who are into more traditionally feminine things are gay while also insisting that a male character who likes ballet is gay (not directed at readers, just at a person I saw on instagram. It was infuriating).
> 
> Anyways, enjoy.

He thinks she is stunning the first time he sees her.

She’s a teacher, and a bright one at that. Though there are a few other teachers on board, she is the only full-time educator, and she knows what she is talking about. At her interview, she and him discussed, in depth, the history of classical music.

She bounces into the office, and there is a hurt behind her eyes, but he notices that, when she leaves, the hurt is no longer prominent. It is no longer noticeable. There is happiness, and her smile is dazzling.

His emotions get the better of him when he thinks that maybe, possibly, she could be the one he was always meant to marry.

*

He listens to Zack for the first time in his life, which he never should have done, but there is a silver lining. There is good to come from Zack’s antics.

He is set up with Emma, and he is in love.

He is in love. He would never admit it, least of all to Zack or London, but he is in love with Emma. He loves her laugh, her smile, her intelligence. She is angelic, enamoring, breath-taking.

If he were more of a romantic, he would ask London to help him shop for rings. As it is, he browses the jewelry boutiques on the ship during school hours. He thinks there is one, a simple ring that works with his salary, with a silver band and a single diamond.

If he were more of a romantic, he would have bought the ring.

If he were more of a romantic, he would never have let Emma go.

*

They are friends, at least.

He helps her through her heartbreaks, even as he thinks to himself that he could save her from the pain, even as he thinks to himself that he would never make the same mistake again. She asks him once why he never goes on a date, and he cannot bring himself to say that it is because he is so deeply in love with her.

They talk about classical music and classical movies – classical movies that do not include  _ The Three Stooges, _ he has learned. They meet over coffee, and he learns her order: hazelnut coffee. She sometimes gets to the coffeeshop ahead of time, and she has his order ready for him. They talk about each other’s unique interests: Emma loves the outdoors and cats, he loves dance and literature.

Both of them despise Hemingway’s works, as well as  _ The Great Gatsby, _ although both are willing to admit the aesthetic appeal of Gatsby.

Emma asks him about his relationship with London and how he seems so paternal towards her. Marion sips his coffee and explains, in hushed tones, that Mr. Tipton was always a neglectful father and had not even been there for London’s birth. London’s mother died when London was but a little girl, and for a few years, Mr. Tipton tried his hand at being a father, but the role was ultimately booted to Marion.

“She is like my own daughter,” he says, wrapping his hands around his mug, “and I do not know what I would do if she were hurt. I do not know how I could handle it.”

Emma raises an eyebrow and plays with the string on her sweatshirt. “Would you ever want kids, Marion?”

At first, he wants to say no. He feels like he has also played a hand in raising Zack and Cody, the hooligans, but he also knows that he cares for them, deep down, like he cares for London. At first, he wants to say that he would never have his own children in a million years. But he loves London like she was his own, and he could not imagine a life without a child of his own.

Maybe he answers the way he does because of his drowsiness, but he settles back into his seat. “Maybe someday,” he says, and with a small smile, “if I find the right person.”

He has found the right person, and she sits right in front of him.

*

He learns when her birthday is, and he buys her the greatest romance story he has ever read, and he hopes (prays) that she enjoys it.

When she kisses his cheek, thanking him for the present, he wishes it was his life forever.

*

They get lost at sea.

At first, she is angry with him, both because he was the one who released the lifeboat into the water and because he insisted on his way. It saved their lives, but he regrets it because she is angry.

It gets cold overnight, so much so that Emma makes her way over to him. She presses her lips together. “I’m sorry to be so…” she plays with her hair, “uh, forward, but it’s really cold, and I was wondering –”

He pats the ground beside him. “Come here, Emma.”

He wakes up before her, before the hint of dawn comes over the horizon, and he looks down, studying her face, and he wants this to be his life forever.

Well…not so much the “stranded on a desert island” part, but the rest of it.

*

Marion goes below deck to hide from the twins – and more particularly, Cody and his lovey-dovey relationship with Bailey – and he finds Emma crying.

“What’s wrong?” he asks as he kneels next to her and offers her his pocket hanky.

Her breath catches and she shakes her head. “It’s just…it’s a bad day for me.”

He narrows his eyes. “What did the twins do?”

It is supposed to make her laugh, but her face twists in pain. “As far as I know, nothing.” She licks her lips and dabs at her eye, but a sob rips from her throat.

“Oh, Emma,” he says, and he moves to sit closer to her.

She turns her face into his shoulder and sobs.

It is only later that he learns that it was the tenth anniversary of her miscarrying her first and only child.

*

“So, how is the social studies project going?”

Emma winces. “I give it two days before Cody and Bailey break up. Zack and London are getting along quite well.”

“You aren’t going to make them do a fake baby project?”

On days where it is not the anniversary of her miscarriage, they can talk about kids or babies in any context.

She laughs to herself and tugs on the sleeves of her t-shirt. “Yeah, I don’t think that will go over so well. Woody doesn’t want kids and Addison wants a big family, Zack and London…might do well with kids, but I just don’t want the stress of it, and Cody and Bailey will constantly argue over anything and everything about the baby.”

He wants to crack a joke, about how he and Emma should show the kids how it should be done when it comes to relationships and children, but they are not there yet. He wants to say that he loves her, but he cannot.

“Maybe Cody and Bailey…are not right for each other.”

*

Life on the S.S. Tipton is more or less unbearable ever since Cody and Bailey broke up. The sky deck is filled with constant bickering, yelling, and to some extent, fighting.

Emma laments about the shift in classroom dynamics, how Cody and Bailey are more competitive than ever before. Neither of them celebrate the other, regardless of accomplishments, and Emma says that she is about five seconds away from duct-taping their mouths shut for class.

Marion plays with his empty mug. “You know,” he says, pulling his hand away from the mug and moving it to play with his sweatshirt string, “Cody used to be the sensitive one. He told me once that you lose a woman by forgetting to cherish her.”

Emma offers a tight smile. “Looks like he forgot to cherish this one.”

*

She is more beautiful than he could ever have expected. Ethereal, angelic, breathtaking.

Not that he has never thought she is stunning when she wears leggings and a sweatshirt, but now, as she is dressed for the Renaissance Dance, he feels a pull towards her that he cannot resist.

As they dance together to the slow music, she steps closer to him. Their bodies are separated only by a breath, and they study each other under the moonlight.

He wants to kiss her, but he cannot. He wants to kiss her, but he will not.

(Somehow, he knows that she feels the same pull, the same desire, and she has made the same decision not to kiss him.)

She smiles at him and closes the gap between them by resting her head on his shoulder.

*

His friendship with Emma has progressed, to the point where he takes care of her when she starts her period and she cannot walk from the pain. He has seen her in a swimsuit, even in a bikini over semester break, and she has seen him without a shirt on. Emma is the only person alive to have seen him in sweats and a sweatshirt, and he is the only person alive whom she has trusted with the heartbreaking details of her life (though, he recognizes, the two are not remotely equivalent).

So it should come as no surprise to him that there would come a day when Emma stormed into the lobby, wearing mostly only a sweatshirt and a swimsuit, to yell, “I hate teaching!”

His fingers freeze over the keyboard. “You have to teach London, Woody, and Zack, and it is only on Senior Ditch Day that you say that you hate teaching?”

Emma slams her hand on the desk. “It’s Cody and Bailey! Not only do they take over my classes, not only do they do an excessive amount of work that  _ I _ have to grade, not only do they have an extreme lack of respect for authority, not only are they know-it-alls, not only do they criticize my teaching techniques that are designed for the lowest common denominator and not the egotistical know-it-alls, but  _ now, _ they show up to class on Senior Ditch Day and get mad at me for not wanting to teach them!”

There is nothing he can say to her specific situation that will make her feel better, despite his practically having raised the twins alongside London. “Look,” he finally says, “when check-in closes for the night, would you like to just watch cheesy movies or  _ Little House on the Prairie _ in one of our cabins?”

She heaves a sigh of relief and pulls him into a hug. “That would be great, Marion. Bring the popcorn to my room, we’re watching as many episodes of  _ Little House on the Prairie _ as we can sit through.”

*

His jealousy becomes too much to bear, and he asks Zack’s help.

It does not work, of course. All the outfits, all the antics, all of it was too much and not at all like him. If he will not go on a date with Emma while being himself, then he will spend the rest of his days alone, like he has always expected.

But before Cody’s play begins, he sees how Bruno treats Emma. He sees Emma, in pain, and he cannot stand idly by.

She snuggles close to him during the play and reaches for his hand. Her closeness comforts him, and he rests his cheek on her hat.

Cody’s acting is beyond terrible, and it makes the play unbearable. Emma lifts her head. “You want to get out of here?”

He takes her hand and leads her back to his cabin. The two of them glance around, checking to make sure that there are no passers-by, and he lifts his hand to her cheek and kisses her gently. She melts into the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck, and they stay there, in the hallway, kissing slowly, finally telling each other how they really feel.

He brushes her hair away from her face. “I hope I am not being too forward when I ask you inside.”

She kisses him once more. “What could it hurt?”

They sit on the bed, trading between talking and kissing, and it is late when they realize that it might be time to head to bed. Emma asks to stay, and he obliges, offering her a pair of his sweats and one of his t-shirts. She snuggles into his side and rests her head on his chest, and his heart is full.

She leaves early when the sun rises, just so the kids don’t talk, but they make plans to rendezvous.

Marion knows that now, it is time to search for rings.

*

“I love you,” he says the first time at the prom.

He knows that Zack only named him prom king in order to avoid trouble, but he does not care anymore. Emma is so happy here, and she looks so beautiful. How could he not forgive her for holding a secret prom?

She presses her lips together and tears well up in her eyes. “You what?”

“I love you,” he repeats.

Emma smiles and kisses him once, to the  _ awwwws _ of students around them. “I love you, too.”

*

“Will you marry me?” he asks, and he means it.

“Yes!” she screams and kisses him.

They are about to make a life with each other. He does not particularly care where they make this life – if it is in New York or Boston, back at one of the Tipton hotels or starting a different path, if they are poor as dirt or as wealthy as London herself – he wants to spend the rest of his life with her.

They talk about children, but both of them are older in age. Marion is nearly forty, and Emma is only two years younger than him. They discuss adoption, and they agree to try for biological children for a year after they are married, and if nothing happens within the year, then they will try to adopt.

“I love you,” they say, “more than anything in the world.”

*

Eight months later, Emma bursts into the Tipton hotel.

Marion always looks forward to seeing her, but it is a new feeling to welcome his wife in the lobby and introduce her as such. Surprise visits from Emma are uncommon, unless there is a case of bad weather or unless it is his birthday. Considering the sunny day outside and the fact that both of them are in between birthdays, Marion cannot fathom why she would be here.

He steps out from behind his desk, gesturing for Esteban to step in to oversee check-ins. “Emma,” he says, greeting his wife with a kiss on the cheek. “Not that I am not glad to see you, but what is the occasion?”

Emma twists her hands together. “You know how we’ve been trying to get pregnant?”

He glances to her stomach and reaches for her hands. “Emma, you’re–”

“Marion, I’m pregnant. We’re having a baby!”

“We’re having a baby!”

*

They have a son, born on September 23.

Marion perches on the hospital bed next to Emma, and as they stare down at their little bundle of joy, they realize that they need to decide on a name.

Naturally, they discussed several possibilities, but none of them seem right. All of them were based on Shakespearean characters or classical writers, but their son is not King Arthur or Julius Caesar. He is greater than that, and for that reason, he must be named simply.

Marion itches to hold his son, but his son has just been placed on Emma’s chest, and Marion knows enough not to interrupt this time between them. So he clears his throat and says, “I, um, I have had a name in the back of my mind ever since we found out. I never mentioned it because…well, simply because I did not think it could be right for our child. But now I think differently.”

Emma reluctantly glances up from looking at their baby. “Oh? Pray tell, Marion.”

“Britton Zack Moseby. After the two children that made me realize that I might want to be a father after all.”

Emma smiles at him, too tired to kiss him, and looks back at the baby. “I think Britton Zack Moseby is the perfect name.”

**Author's Note:**

> Like it, love it, hate it? Leave a comment below, or go to my tumblr, @ takemebackto-kansas, and tell me what you think!
> 
> (Note: I am not active on that tumblr, but I might check in every now and then)


End file.
